CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITYBECAUSE LIFE IS GOOD

Protecting endangered species and wild
places through
science, policy, education, and environmental law.

For immediate release: August 23, 2005

Contact: Noah Greenwald: 503-484-7495

U.S. FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE TO CONSIDER PROTECTION OF MEXICAN GARTER SNAKE

RARE SOUTWESTERN SNAKE IMPERILED BY CONTINUED DESTRUCTION OF SOUTHWEST RIVERS AND STREAMS

Settling a suit brought by the Center for Biological Diversity, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) has agreed to consider protection for the Mexican garter snake as a threatened or endangered species under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The species is an aquatic garter snake with a range-wide distribution in Arizona, southwest New Mexico, and Mexico. It is one of hundreds of native riparian species that are threatened by the destruction and degradation of rivers and streams in the Southwest. The Center petitioned for protection of the snake December 15, 2003. FWS will make a decision on whether the petition presents substantial information by December 16, 2005.

The Mexican garter snake has been extirpated from most of its U.S. range, including the Colorado, Gila, and much of the Santa Cruz and San Pedro Rivers. The decline of the Mexican garter snake is closely linked to the deteriorating quality of streamside habitats and the disappearance of native frogs and native fishes. “Widespread degradation of southwest rivers and introduction of dozens of exotic species necessitates protection of the Mexican garter snake under the ESA,” states Noah Greenwald, conservation biologist for the Center for Biological Diversity. “The Endangered Species Act is an important safety-net for the nation’s wildlife and could help save the Mexican garter snake.”

Populations of the Mexican garter snake are severely fragmented and isolated due to loss and destruction of suitable habitat, which consists of riparian areas with permanent water, streamside vegetation for cover, and native prey species. Livestock grazing, urbanization, pollution, loss of native prey species, and exotic species have resulted in the loss of greater than 90% of the Southwest’s riparian habitat and the listing of 30 species under the ESA. “Southwest rivers have been under massive assault for over a century,” states Greenwald. “To protect southwest riparian species, livestock must be removed from all southwest rivers and streams on public lands, instream flows must be established, and further introduction of non-native species must be prohibited.”

“Without ESA listing and critical habitat designation, the Mexican garter snake population will continue in its dangerous trajectory of local extirpations and decreased range,” concludes Greenwald. Listing of the Mexican garter snake will facilitate conservation of riparian habitats and species by prohibiting activities that result in destruction of habitat, such as livestock grazing and groundwater pumping, directing federal funding towards removal of non-native species, and encouraging additional research on the status of the species.

Mexican garter snakes reach a maximum length of one meter, range in color from olive to olive-brown to olive-gray, and have three yellow stripes that run the length of the body. They feed primarily on native frogs and fish, but will also occasionally eat lizards and mice. A picture of the garter snake and a map of its range are available on request.